Stephen Decatur was a decorated Navy officer, after distinguishing himself in the Barbary wars, when he sat on the court martial that stripped Commodore James Barron of his Navy commission for five years for cowardice against the British. Barron did not return right away after the expiration of that sentence – he was on a merchant vessel trip during that time – leading Decatur to further accuse the disgraced Commodore of abandoning his duty. Words escalated to letters, and finally Barron challenged Decatur to a duel.

On this day, March 22, in 1820, Decatur and Barron met to settle their bad blood once and for all. At a distance of 24 feet both men fired a pistol at each other. Barron was hit in the lower abdomen and Decatur was hit in the pelvic area. Decatur died the following day because of the wounds while Barron survived.

Their duel did not have the headline-grabbing presence of a Founding Father, but it did actually take place on the same spot – the Bladensburg Dueling Grounds, just inside the Maryland border from Washington, D.C. Dueling was already frowned upon – Benjamin Franklin called it “senseless” and solving nothing – but was still considered an acceptable means of resolving disputes until the last decades of the 19th century.